Fans were on their feet Thursday night inside the Saddledome as world-renowned Punjabi music sensation Diljit Dosanjh sang and danced for a sold-out crowd of Calgarians.
It was a moment Sandeep Kaur had been waiting for, and she’s now sharing it with a new generation.
“When I was a kid, since that time I was listening to him,” she said. “Now my daughter is 5 and a half, and she’s a fan.”
Dosanjh’s wide appeal is widening throughout North America and the world as he continues his Aura World Tour across Canada and the U.S.
Born in a small village named Dosanjh Kalan in India’s Punjab, Dosanjh’s music and acting career started in 2002, quickly catapulting him from humble beginnings to a worldwide sensation, introducing the masses not only to Punjabi beats but also to the rich culture and history they belong to.
“He’s representing the turban. He’s telling who Punjabi people are and who Sikh people are, and how they love spreading love all around,” said fan Jass Saini outside the concert Thursday.
Dosanjh’s star power and talent have garnered the recognition of some of mainstream music’s biggest stars.
One of his newer tracks, released in March, “Ranjha”, in tandem with David Guetta and Sia, has surpassed 10 million streams on Spotify. He even made history Monday as the first Punjabi artist to appear twice on The Tonight Show.
Host Jimmy Fallon recognized this star power, saying, “Everywhere I went for a year after you came in, people were thanking me for having a Punjabi artist on our show, and people are hugging me. People love you, bud.”
The love is spreading so wide that Toronto Metropolitan University is launching a course this fall about the stage and screen icon. Dr. Charlie Wall-Andrews, Creative Industries Professor, says the artist’s recognition in Canada represents a shift this country has been waiting to see.
“It shows that there is demand for more diverse representation to be curated on these stages,” she told OMNI News. “As our demographics change in Canada, there are more members of diverse communities who want to consume culture that reflects their culture, their language, their interests.”
But, for the Punjabi community, this rise is about more than just musical representation. Dosanjh’s migration to the mainstream represents inclusion and a statement of success for Punjabi communities across the country.
Dosanjh himself acknowledged how far Punjabis have come in Canada when speaking to Fallon, reflecting on his Vancouver performance just blocks away from the site of a dark time in Canada’s Sikh history.
In 1914, our people came to Canada for the first time; they were not allowed to come and go to Canada. And that stadium is just two kilometres away from the Guru Nanak Jahaz Komagata Maru incident. So, it’s a big thing for us now, 55,000 people in the one stadium there, just two kilometres away, you didn’t allow us to come. And now, here we are, man. So, that’s why it’s amazing.”
He is set to have more Albertans dancing in Edmonton on Saturday as his tour continues at Rogers Place.